


Shores and Sun

by Uniasus



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Post-Canon, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-29
Updated: 2015-10-29
Packaged: 2018-04-28 17:51:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5100059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uniasus/pseuds/Uniasus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sleeping besides Annabeth in a real bed, the warmth of another body to keep the edge of his nightmares away. It's not just that she's his girlfriend, but because she has gone through the same things as him. She understands, without forcing him to say it out loud. They communicate non-verbally so well now. No one else will be as close to him as she is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shores and Sun

**Author's Note:**

> So, recently moved and used my brand new library card on the first full day in the house to grab the Lightening Theif. And then went through 11 books within two weeks. Yeah, this fandom hit me hard.
> 
> I had to write something, I've had several ideas in my head, but this was totally not one of them. My sister yelled at me because it was sappy and not very angsty. Heck there isn't even a lot of drama.
> 
> But what it does have is peacefulness and that's something these guys needed.

The first night after everything was truly over, the war, the cleanup, the stress, was the first night he had hoped to get in a proper rest in his own bed. No catching naps on a cot in the Apollo cabin or in the sun, drifting off during meetings, setting an alarm for four hours later.

There was nothing on his mind but the need for sleep and he was going to get it.

He had been too exhausted to properly dream these past few weeks, he hadn't thought tonight would be any different.

But it is. His mind isn't thinking of plans or logistics while he sleeps and so the memories crept in.

They had haunted him when he lived them, nipped at his heels during the day sometimes, but so far he had managed to repress most of that by keeping busy. Now...

Falling. Drowning. Watching Annabeth leave. Water that wouldn't react. Calypso's curse. A brief look of Tartarus's true nature. The thoughts of Night's horses. Bob thinking of maybe not helping them. Nico is the jar. Giants. All of them. The voice of Gaea. Annabeth's face when he realized he could bend the water in a body. The terror of a vortex face. Falling in the elevator. Kym's poison. The burn of fire in his throat.

There is a hand on his arm and he springs awake, pulling Riptide from his pj pocket and halfway uncapping it before he realizes what had woken him was the gentle touch of Annabeth's fingertips.

"Nightmare?" she whispers.

He sits up fully, swinging his legs over the bed. "Yeah."

His voice is hoarse. He wonders if he had been screaming.

"Me too." She sits down next to him, matching her forehead to his shoulder and wrapping him in a sideways hug.

"Was it..."

"Yeah. And some." He kisses the top of her head, still wired from the memories of fighting and running. It surprises him to notice they are both trembling, just a bit.

"I'm staying here tonight. I don't care about camp rules."

He likes the idea. Sleeping besides Annabeth in a real bed, the warmth of another body to keep the edge of his nightmares away. It's not just that she's his girlfriend, but because she has gone through the same things as him. She understands, without forcing him to say it out loud. They communicate non-verbally so well now. No one else will be as close to him as she is.

But he can't stay in Cabin 3. It's dark, made of stone, and he feels claustrophobic. He has a sudden ache to see the sun and clouds, the sky and shore. The cabin hasn't felt right to him since Hera took him, tonight more so. It's not that it reminds him of Tartarus, but it blocks him from remembering he's no longer there. Especially if he and Annabeth lay in the dark and try to sleep while holding hands.

Annabeth gets the message in the way he frowns at the bed and gazes towards the window. There is no glow, it's the night before a new moon, but he doesn't care. He's been in darker places.

He slips on a sweatshirt, Annabeth taking his coat, and they head out the door. He elects to not put on shoes and takes it farther by pulling off his socks. The desire to feel grass between his toes is strong and he wants to feel the sense of sand under his feet.

Annabeth leaves her sandals by the cabin door. It'll be a sign to the harpies in the morning that Annabeth had left her cabin to visit him, but neither of them care. They have seen worse things than harpies.

As Annabeth leads them to the shore, he thinks there isn't much he fears now. The harpies. Chiron's disappointment. He'd probably laugh if the Ares and Apollo cabin united to challenge him. What he does fear is all wrapped up in Annabeth. Losing her, in any sense of the word. Even the fears of losing his other friends are weak compared to that.

"We're okay. We're together," she says. They're almost to the beach now, she doesn't have to whisper, but he knows why she does. The fear that one day they might not be squeezes her throat as mush as his.

"We always will be." He wants that to be true, will make it true in everything he does.

Annabeth steps closer to him and he wraps an arm around her waist, hooking a finger into a belt loop on her jeans.

Hera's face appears in his mind, she had ripped them apart before, and a new wave of fear rips through him. He stops and squeezes Annabeth to his side. She turns to face him, placing a palm on his cheek, and then he's leaning down to kiss her.

I love you, I love you, I love you. I never want to be without you.

She's warm beneath him, mouth open and needy, and he dives into her. One of her hands is still on his check, the other on his chest. His own have pulled her tighter to him, the line of her body against him pressing from inseam to lips. He wants to surround himself in her, because he was lost without her, dead without her, and even now she was the one thing who could chase away his fears.

Annabeth whines in his mouth, but pushes herself away. She puts her head on his chest and they both catch their breath. They help each other chase away Tartarus, but tonight he doesn't want to forget. He wants to remind himself it's over.

They reach the beach and walk along it towards the forest, him just past the water line and her a few steps to the other side. He rubs his thumb over the back of Annabeth's palm and watches the water come and go around his feet.

Wet sand. Chilly water. The way his feet sink with each step. The slight breeze on his neck. Simply the awareness of water and what he could do with it. Stars, millions of them.

He doesn't know how long they stood there, both of them with their necks cricked back, before realizing there's something on the beach with them.

He stiffens and drops Annabeth's hand, feels her body go taunt next to his. It doesn't matter that the barrier is strong and they are still in it, he catalogers things as threats first. Dangerous until proven nice.

The figure on the beach is human and the lack of clacks and the flash of metal means it isn't a legionnaire walking the grounds one last time before they leave in the morning. Annabeth relaxes quickly, breathing out a sigh of relief, and he takes it as proof the person coming towards them is friendly.

He's surprised to realize he almost wants the person coming towards them to be Poseidon. He could use a fatherly presence to say things will be alright. The figure though is slimmer, shorter, and now that he thought about it his dad wouldn't walk down a beach toward him. Poseidon would have appeared feet way, not yards. 

Annabeth recognizes the form before him and starts walking towards it, pulling on his wrist.

"It's Nico," she says and he's half inclined to dig his heels into the sand.

Nico may have said he wasn't his type, but the son of Hades had confessed. And for all of Nico's new closeness to Will Solace, that relationship had stalled on day two.

Honestly, he didn't think he had exchanged more than greetings with Nico since Nico had said he loved him.

"Nico, what are you doing out here?" Annabeth calls out when they're closer.

Nico's head snaps up, he had been staring at his feet in the water, and now stares at them. His skin is pale, like always, but his face is more troubled and hollow than usual. The signs of a nightmare are obvious.

If he can pick it up, Annabeth did feet ago.

It strikes him Nico must be haunted by similar memories. Their quests were different, but he expects the horrors overlapped. He can't imagine having survived Tartarus without Annabeth, and here before him was a guy who had done it alone. 

Nico suddenly looks very lonely and very strong in his eyes. He knows exactly why Nico is out here.

"You wanted to listen to the waves, right?"

Nico looks at him and shrugs. 

Annabeth has figured it out and he lets her take over the conversation. She describes the beauty of the world around them, how open and freeing it is. Nico's confusion is evident, but eventually he nods and a smile, okay a smirk, shows up on his face.

It's a silent communication between the three of them that he's surprised they've missed before tonight. 

How could he have missed this fact? That Nico needs exactly what they need? Reminders of the good in the world, of people, of surviving. It doesn't matter that Nico's infatuation makes him feel a little awkward, has him gaping like a fish and not know what to say. Right now, and in future nights, silence is good as long as it is punctuated with owl hoots and wind blown leaves.

He walks between his girlfriend and his friend, taking each of their hands, and then falling to the sand. Both of them are dragged down with him. 

"What was that for, Percy?" Nico snarls, but Annabeth already understands and is curling against his side.

"Easier to see the stars and watch the sun come up." Dawn is just about to start, he didn't realize they had been out here so long, but he doesn't feel tired. Just peaceful.

Nico huffs but doesn't try to get up. He does try to yank his hand free, but fails. His blush is hard to miss.

That's thoughts for another time. Instead he concentrates of the feel of two bodies next to him, bodies belonging to people he cares about and people who understand. He's happy and the sunrise is the best he ever sees.

**Author's Note:**

> Will I write another for this fandom? Eh, who knows. But I kinda want to see a conversation between Percy and Hestia after the war with Gaea...


End file.
